Even after their 2-1, 10-inning loss to the Blue Jays on Friday night at Yankee Stadium, the opener to what Toronto manager John Gibbons called “probably the most meaningful [series] we’ve played here in 20 years,” the Yankees (61-47) own a 3 ¹/₂-game lead over Toronto (59-52) atop the AL East, and it’s actually five games in the loss column.

But the Blue Jays? They’re more than capable of erasing that room for error. Reinforced at the non-waivers trade deadline, they’re ready to climb that mountain. Hoo, boy, are they.

“We know what our offense can do,” said Jose Bautista, whose solo homer off the Yankees’ Branden Pinder in the 10th made the difference. “We’ve got David Price going [Saturday]. I don’t think they’re feeling good right now.”

If you’re wandering into reading the minds of opponents and you’re publicly determining that said opponents are shaken? Then you’re probably feeling pretty good about yourself. The Blue Jays, winners of six in a row and nine of their last 10, surely are, with Troy Tulowitzki, Ben Revere, LaTroy Hawkins and Mark Lowe joining the party alongside Price during this stretch. The front office went all in on this season, giving up several top prospects to strengthen its roster.

The Yankees, looking to protect their long-term assets, made just one move in late July, and that acquisition, Dustin Ackley, is already hurt. So we have ourselves a battle of contrasts here in more ways than one. The Yankees are trying to end a two-season playoff drought, the Blue Jays a 20-season famine (not counting the October-less 1994).

“They’ve played better than us to this point,” Bautista said of the Yankees. “We want to change that any way that we can. The only way that we can is to win these games.”

The two clubs have 12 head-to-head matchups remaining this season. The Blue Jays very much control their own destiny in this race.

The Yankees, however, have stood up to every challenge in this very surprising season. Even though they lost Friday, their young starting pitcher, Nathan Eovaldi, passed another test by pitching quite well against the Blue Jays’ lethal lineup. Eovaldi allowed just one run, on Josh Donaldson’s first-inning solo homer, in 6 ¹/₃ innings, walking two and striking out three. Reliable (and hard-working) relievers Justin Wilson, Dellin Betances and Andrew Miller kept the game scoreless through nine, and with one out in the 10th, Pinder, a rookie, got ahead of Bautista, 0-and-2, then buried a slider, then offered a 97-mph fastball that Bautista drilled over the wall in left field.

The Blue Jays have invited themselves into this race. Former Met R.A. Dickey, pitching on behalf of the majors’ best offensive team, limited the industry’s second-best offensive team to just Mark Teixeira’s second-inning homer in seven innings, and then the Jays’ new and improved bullpen took care of the rest, with rookie Roberto Osuna tossing a 1-2-3 10th for his ninth save.

“It’s a neat way to win the ballgame,” Dickey said. “… I feel like we’re ascending.”

Tulowitzki wanted out of Colorado because of the franchise’s constant losing, yet back in his rookie season, 2007, he experienced the sort of run that most never do. Those Rockies closed out the regular season by winning 14 of 15 games and then opened their postseason by winning seven straight.

“It has some flashbacks,” Tulowitzki conceded, even as he contended that there were differences, too. “I think every time you come to the park, right now, just like back in ’07, you’re thinking, ‘OK, no matter if we get down, hey, we’ve got a chance in this ballgame.’ ”

They never got down Friday. In this ballpark, though, against this Yankees team, most others have failed to prevail in tight games like this one.

“This is the team we’re chasing,” Gibbons said. “We’ve got to beat them sooner or later. It’s a good way to start.”